Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed and 35 wounded in a car bomb attack near the North Sinai city of El-Arish today, a security official said.

The attack was one of the deadliest in the Sinai peninsula, which is near Israel and the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip, since al Qaeda-inspired militants began stepping up assaults following the army’s ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July.

The soldiers were travelling in a convoy on the road to the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.